Family LAOMEDIIDAE Borradaile, 1903

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• Laomediidae Borradaile, L.A. 1903. On the classification of the Thalassinidea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 12(7): 534-551, 638.

  Type genus:

   Laomedia De Haan, 1841.

Introduction

This family of burrowing mud shrimps is represented in Australia by two species: Laomedia healyi Yaldyn & Wear, 1970, and L. barronensis Ngoc-Ho & Yaldwyn, 1997. Both are cryptic species confined to intertidal mangroves of eastern Australia. Larvae of an unidentified species belonging to a second genus, Jaxea Nardo, have been recorded from the plankton off eastern Australia by Dakin & Colefax (1940), but no adult Jaxea species have ever been captured. Ngoc-Ho (1997) and Ngoc-Ho & Yaldwyn (1997) reviewed the living species of Laomedia and provided a key to the genus. Poore (1994) provided a key to world genera.

Diagnosis

Reptant decapods without a thelycum in the female. Carapace with linea thalassinica present; posterior margin with lateral lobes, rostrum minute; eyestalks cylindrical; maxilla 2 scaphognathite with several thickened setae on posterior lobe; antenna 1 with article 3 as long as or longer than article 2; gill elements paired. Pereiopods 1–5 having basis and ischium fused; first pereiopods equal; pereiopod 1 chelate, carpus-propodus articulation slight; pereiopod 2 simple; always with dense row of long setae on lower margin; pereiopod 3 simple, propodus linear; pereiopod 4 simple or subchelate, coxa cylindrical; propodus of pereiopods 3 and 4 with a few spiniform setae on lower margin; pereiopod 5 chelate or subchelate; without arthrobranch on thoracomere 1; propodus of pereiopods 3 and 4 with or without spiniform setae; pereiopods 2–4 and abdominal somites sometimes with setal-rows. Thoracic sternite 7 narrow. Abdominal somite 1 chitinised, with anterolateral lobes, pleuron weak; pleopod 2 similar to pleopods 3–5, rami lanceolate; pleopods without appendix interna; uropodal exopod ovate; pereiopods 2–4 and abdominal somites without setal-rows. (After Poore 1994).

General References

Dakin, W.J. & Colefax, A.N. 1940. The plankton of the Australian coastal waters of New South Wales, Part No. 1: With special reference to the seasonal distribution, the phytoplankton, and the planktonic Crustacea, and in particular, the Copepoda and crustacean larvae, together with an account of the more frequent members of the groups Mysidacea, Euphausiacea, Amphipoda, Mollusca, Tunicata, Chaetognatha, and some reference to the fish eggs and fish larvae. University of Sydney, Department of Zoology, Monograph 1: 1-215 303 figs 4 pls

Ngoc-Ho, N. 1997. The genus Laomedia De Haan, 1841 with description of a new species from Vietnam (Crustacea, Thalassinidae, Laomediidae). Zoosystematica Rossica 19: 729-747

Ngoc-Ho, N. & Yaldwyn, J.C. 1997. A new species of Laomedia (Crustacea, Thalassinidea, Laomediidae) from Australia with notes on its ecology. Zoosystematica Rossica 19: 337-343

Poore, G.C.B. 1994. A phylogeny of the families of Thalassinidea (Crustacea: Decapoda) with keys to families and genera. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 54: 79-120

Yaldwyn, J.C. & Wear, R.G. 1970. Preliminary description of a new burrowing mud-shrimp from eastern Australia (Crustacea, Macrura Reptantia, Laomediidae). The Australian Zoologist 15: 384-385, 1 fig.

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